It is known that a conventional digital voltage regulator can be used to regulate a DC voltage supplied to a load such as a microprocessor. For example, a voltage regulator can include a power converter, such as a DC-DC converter, and may include other components such as a digital controller for controlling operation of the power converter. Typically, conventional digital controllers control operation of multiple switches in a power supply to regulate an output voltage within a desired range.
Because real estate consumed on a printed circuit board may be limited, it is typically desirable to reduce a size of components associated with a power supply circuit. One way to reduce size is to implement all or part of the digital controller in a semiconductor chip that mounts directly to a corresponding circuit board being powered.
To provide increased performance and optimization for a specific power supply design, conventional digital controller circuits can include non-volatile memory for storing data such as power supply trim information. The data stored in the non-volatile memory can be used for a number of reasons. For example, the data can be used to at least in part to store custom trim information for a particular circuit board.
The trim information or other data can be written to the non-volatile memory of the digital controller at a number of different stages of manufacturing. For example, it is possible that a manufacturer of the digital controller chip writes custom data to the non-volatile memory prior to shipping the parts to a customer who then mounts the already programmed parts onto respective circuit boards.